Start: The Wheatley Arms, Wheatley Lane, Ben Rhydding, Ilkley, West Yorkshire LS29 8PP
(S/E) From the front of The Wheatley Arms pub on Wheatley Lane, cross into Longcroft Road, noting the old cottage dated 1671 on your right. At the end of the cul-de-sac, follow a footpath to the left beyond the last house. This path leads uphill between garden fences to Ben Rhydding Road. Turn right along the road and follow it for 550m, passing the junctions with Clifton Road, Rombalds Lane and Constable Road. Turn left into Old Lane and follow it round to the right, keeping right at a junction to reach Hangingstone Road. Ignoring the path immediately opposite, cross and turn right for a short distance across a small dip.
(1) Shortly after the dip take the next path, through a gate on the left. Follow the path right through trees and keep straight ahead when another path joins obliquely from the right. The path winds through bracken, gorse and rowan to a small lake known as “The Tarn”. Turn right along the surfaced lakeside path and follow it past a shelter to the end of the lake. Cross the metalled path and take a narrow, unsurfaced path to the right of a lamp-post that leads up steps through bracken. This path, rocky and uneven in places, leads up to the white-painted cottage at White Wells (A).
(2) From White Wells cottage, walk down the obvious path to the right of the toilet block. Just after the path curves to cross a railed-off stream at Willy Hall’s Spout, turn left onto a narrower path with a “Dales High Way” waymark. The path contours across the brackeny hillside; at a narrow fork keep left, to emerge by a small parking area.
(3) Follow the road ahead over a stream then, when the road bends left, take a path on the right. Rather than walking along the bottom of the moor close to the houses, take a parallel path on the left, slightly higher up. Go through a hand-gate in a wall and when you meet a more obvious, stony track follow it left, passing above a reservoir. After crossing a small stream, pass through a gate in a wall and continue to the Swastika Stone (B), on a rocky outcrop protected by railings (the original carving is on the main outcrop; the more obvious carving on the smaller stone in front is a modern copy).
(4) From the Swastika Stone, retrace your steps past a bench, where a mostly grassy path on the other side of the main track leads obliquely up the hill above the Swastika Stone. Follow this path up the slope to a walled
corner at the top right. Go through the gate and turn right along the wall.
(5) At a second gateway, turn hard left and follow an ascending, eroded path up the slope. Carry on in the same direction as another path joins from the left. Pass through a gate in a wall (with a through-stile to the right) and cross a small, boggy stream. Shortly afterwards, follow the path as it bends to the right and climbs to meet a wall.
(6) Follow the wall leftwards for 250m then turn right through a gateway. (The Neb Stone, a prominent projecting rock with a couple of possible cup-marks, is a short distance to the left, along the wall at a corner.) From the gateway, follow the obvious track across the moor until it meets a major track.
(7) Cross straight over onto a rough path that crosses a couple of boggy streams. Immediately after the small valley, head off the main path for a short distance to the right to view the Badger Stone, which is next to a bench. Most of the cup and ring marks are on the rear surface. Several paths radiate from the Badger Stone; take the next one clockwise from the path you used to approach the stone, and you will pass to the right of another half-buried cup-marked rock, though the carvings are much less obvious.
(8) On regaining the main path you left earlier, turn right. This worn path heads across the featureless moor, then swings towards an area of trees before bearing right of them to a large cairn just over the brow of a low rise. A little way beyond the cairn, cross a major path and follow the sandy path ahead. This drops down over eroded ground, crossing another path on the way, to a bouldery stream crossing.
(9) Follow the upper path beyond the stream, which runs across fairly level ground to the right of the rocky quarried areas above the Cow and Calf (C). When you meet a crossing path, with views down to the car park and hotel, follow the path ahead, which curves left towards the Calf rock.
(10) At the mouth of a quarry on the left, turn right and walk down the paved path to the car park. From the end of a parking bay on the left, a path runs parallel to the road, marked with a Stanza Stones waymark post. Pass below the Calf rock and ignore a crossing path.
(11) About 400m from the car park, turn sharp right onto a narrow, slightly sunken path that leads down to the road. Turn right (uphill) for a short distance and take a driveway on the left with a sign for Moor Cottage. Follow the driveway to the end then take the path through a gate to the right of the house. This path climbs then levels off.
(12) Before it climbs again towards a covered reservoir, take a path off to the left that leads through trees and scrub to a gate. Continue along the descending path through the trees. At a fork, keep right for the direct route down steps, or swing left for a longer but gentler descent. From the bend at the top of Wheatley Lane, cross the entrances to High Wheatley and Wheatley Rise as you walk steeply down the zig-zag road back to The Wheatley Arms. (S/E)
